On A Happier Note

Over the last few days I've been bashing carers in the community, so I think I need to end the week on a happy note, places where carers are doing their jobs properly.

The first was in a group home for severely mentally disabled people – one of them had wet the bed and while they were removing the mattress to clean it and let it dry out in the garden our patient had become agitated. He'd ended up falling against a door frame and had a cut to the back of the head.

We arrived and the house was clean, the residents were clean and well looked after and there was a general 'good vibe' about the house that was hard to put a finger on. The staff were happy and interacted with the residents and it just seemed like a nice place.

Once more (see Mavis in yesterdays post), we considered the patient suitable for wound cleaning and closure at home – dragging him off to the hospital would only distress him. So our ECP came and sorted him out. The staff at the home were grateful for this and we left with a feeling of a job well done.

The other place that I want to celebrate is the John F. Kennedy Special School in Newham (who it would appear don't have a website). This is a special needs school that teaches severely disabled pupils. Every time I go there it reduces my cynicism level by a couple of notches. The staff there all know the children – they look after them and when they call us, its for a good reason.

As every staff member knows every child it's never a problem to find someone to accompany one of the children to hospital and the way that they interact shows us that they aren't just 'performing' in front of us.

Once more it's a good vibe that I can't quite describe – but I just know that this is a good place for the children and the staff alike.

Awesome! I know you can't name and shame the bad ones, but I was hoping you'd name and… unshame(?) some of the good ones. Hopefully the good publicity doesn't make them swamped and overworked and become less good.

I've been reading your blog for sometime now and really enjoy the way you tell the story of your job. I just want to know why you're not a paramedic or ECP considering you were a nurse in an A&E dept? I don't if you've already answered this, I may have missed it.M.

this is going to sound so random but i havent been able to read your blog for sooooooooo long.(TOOOOOOOO LONG) So im goin to ask a question you are probably sick of hearing….. whats the latest with your new book??

I went to school next to John F. Kennedy school (Rokeby) and was asked several times to take things over (usually post that got delivered wrongly), and every time I'd see all the staff happily and busily looking after the kids and not neglecting any of them. This was 10 to 15 years ago, so it's great to see they haven't changed at all!

What bothers you about ECP role? I must admit you can end up with several ambulances and cars being deployed to same incident but I think it's still relatively new so needs to settle in maybe?You can't always be sure about homes even with a good vibe. There was a home for the mentally handicapped – oh not pc – learning difficulties- in our area. I worked for the GPs who the residents were registered with, I visited the home and was very impressed, it seemed really good. When the staff brought the residents to the surgery they were always kind and caring,

ONE oh Shite ruins One Thousand ata boys.Empty drum makes the most noise.The daily wail , daily depress , the bellyache , the crime and the daily zun only love the bad news, good news news never sells.That be because there be more good news than bad, but bad be like the ice berg you only see or hear 10% of the real world.The usual excuse is by exposing the bad we can de-gut it and leave the good to fester.